CHAT: dyslexia
From: | Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> |
Date: | Thursday, March 29, 2001, 1:46 |
This isn't exactly on-topic, but a friend asked this question and *I*
don't know the answer, but I thought a group of conlangers wouldn't be a
bad place to ask....
*Somewhere* I read (and my friend did, too) that people actually read
logographic systems like Chinese somewhat faster because the translation
goes directly from shapes to word-in-head, rather than shapes to sounds
to word-in-head. It might have been the yingzi article on Rosenfelder's
Zompist.com but I'm not finding the reference and I won't swear to it.
Recently in Time or Scientific American or something I also read that
dyslexia is far less common in places where people have a writing system
that is "simpler" (in terms of phonology/phonetics, I suppose that
meant), e.g. the rate of dyslexia is apparently a lot lower in Italy than
in the U.S. (or some sample of English-speaking nations).
We don't know if these are absolutely true, but the question occurred to
my friend: so would a logographic system alleviate some or many of the
problems of dyslexic readers?
Just wondering,
YHL
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